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ill-considered marriage.”
    She wished that the shadowy, hunched-up figure of the sailor still working over the rope near them would leave. Charles came nearer. “I was a great fool. I should have—have told you sooner. I thought we understood each other. But this is no real marriage. Time takes some odd twists and turns. We never know what the future may hold. Meantime, certainly I’ll conduct myself as you wish.” But he took her hand with a flourishing and indeed rather theatrical air of gallantry and pressed it against his lips before he let her go.
    She went back down the ladder as swiftly as she could manage the long folds of her scarlet cloak.
    There hadn’t been anything said between her and Charles. There had been nothing to say. Yet perhaps Charles did feel something had been implied, ever since he had come from Charlestown at China’s request, and they had talked and ridden and played piquet and sometimes, while China tinkled the spinet, danced together.
    She had never confided her problems to him; he could not have solved them. But he had been friendly, reliable, a welcome guest and an escape from the growing pressure of unwelcome guests, the Grappit family. She had an uneasy feeling that she had taken support and friendliness from Charles and returned nothing. But China might at least have warned her.
    She opened the cabin door and China, still in a frou-frou of blue silk and lace, looked up. “Oh, you saw him. I had to bring him with me! I needed him! And he discovered the privateer and he—why, I couldn’t make this dreadful sea trip, with Jamey, without an escort.”
    “China—surely you didn’t mean to—to throw Charles and me together.”
    “You’re a married woman. If you can’t protect your own virtue, what can I do about it?”
    “It’s not a question of my virtue!”
    China giggled. “You’re blushing, all the same. Charles is indeed a very charming man, gallant, handsome, witty. I’m sure if I were in your place he’d have won my heart and hand long ago.”
    “He didn’t ask for my hand and he doesn’t really want my heart!” Amity flung off her cloak.
    China lifted her thinly plucked eyebrows. “Charles should have spoken sooner. I told him so!”
    “Oh! You told him.”
    “I’ve never made any secret of my feelings, have I? It would have been an excellent marriage for both of you. All in the family. Was Charles very romantic just now?”
    “Did you tell him to be romantic?”
    China giggled. “So he was romantic!”
    “He’s here on board and there’s nothing I can do about it,” Amity said crossly and looked around at the boxes and trunks, half hidden by China’s laces and silks, flung everywhere. “Where is my trunk?”
    “Over there. Beneath my velvet cloak. I brought enough bed linen for you, too.” China yawned luxuriously, smug as a kitten, showing her small white teeth.
    Amity groped through the heaped-up profusion of China’s silks and muslins and dimities, half unpacked, and found her own trunk. “What did they say? What happened the night after I was married?”
    “You mean what did Charles say? I knew you’d be curious.
    Well, Neville got home first, so I told him at once. Let him break it to the Grappits. Then Charles came in and of course Charles doesn’t show much, but I could tell that—” China sat up, her eyes wide. “Lud, you haven’t heard!”
    “Was Aunt Grappit upset?”
    “Her! She had hysterics, smelling salts, brandy, such a to-do. And I had to tell them myself after all. Neville had gone for more brandy. Parson Shincok had emptied the bottle. Uncle Grappit was wild with fury. They both blamed me and I just ran upstairs and locked myself in my room and I didn’t come out till next morning. But that’s not what—”
    “They shouldn’t have blamed you. Didn’t Lawyer Benfit’s letter explain it?”
    “Letter? Oh, I don’t know. I forgot all about it. Heavens, I didn’t tarry to see, I just ran for it, but that’s not